Nerd vs Geek vs Being a Girl

I am a bit of a word-nut. I love discovering etymologies and following the historical changes in word usage. I was never one to sit and read the dictionary for fun, but in some ways I'm a little surprised that I never did.

I have other academic texts that I read 'just for fun'.

But the dictionary isn't much help when it comes to this question. According to Google's dictionary, there is some difference, but it is subtle.

Nerd - 1) A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious 2) An intelligent, single-minded expert in a particular technical discipline or profession.


Geek - 1) an unfashionable or socially inept person 2) person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest 3) a carnival performer who does particularly wild or disgusting acts.

If you get this reference, I love you all the more.

We can obviously disregard the carnival definition, as it's obviously not the useage most common today. Or else this site would be dedicated to a curvy woman who likes doing odd things to chickens or some such thing.

Both definitions describe someone with a lack of social graces, someone who is not socially desirable, and both have elements of expertise or obsession in a subject (with or without practical application).

In broadening the search to looking into the origins of these words, it also doesn't really clear things up. Geek comes from geck, a Scottish word meaning fool, which some have attributed to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Nerd isn't all that old, popping up in the 50s, and it's not really clear why it started being used. Dr. Seus used the word as a nonsensical in If I Ran the Zoo, and some theorize that kids decided to insult one another with this cool sounding word. Others claim the word knurd (the reverse of drunk) was coined by students describing those of their peers who were a bit too studious.

 I've found myself having a number of conversations with people about the difference between 'nerd' and 'geek'. I'll start out by stressing that the English language has a lot of variation to it - while there are set definitions to words, the way they are used an differentiated varies not only between regions of the world but simply from person to person. 

A collection of what the internet tells us about geeks and nerds:

Venn Diagram from Great White Snark

Geek - Very knowledgeable of a specific topic (electronics, comic books, etc)
Nerd - Very knowledgeable across a wide variety of subjects (book smart)
Dork - socially awkward and not mutually exclusive of nerd/geek. - toomuch at MetaFilter

Geek is a term of admiration, nerd is a term of ambivalence, and dork is a term of derision.  - gyusan at MetaFilter

To me nerd is socially related, and geek is interest related.... I think of geekdom as something you can be obsessed with, something to collect, what do you watch, what do you look up in the internet (which didn't exist during my first experiences in geekdom). To me, a nerd is more of a social position. - Mayim Bialik, (Big Bang Theory, Blossom)

 No nerd calculates so hard, gets such perfect grades, to be called a geek. Likewise, no geek spends 3 weeks putting together the perfect steam punk ensemble to be called a nerd. Too many people use the terms “geek” and “nerd” almost interchangeably. While the key differences between the two may be relatively minor to some, they are critical to those in the know. - WolfGnards.com

How do I weigh in on things? 

For one thing, I think that nerd and geek are far more interchangeable than some word purists want to believe. I actually don't know anyone who self identifies as a geek who would care about being called a nerd, any more than they would care about being called a geek. It would depend on the context in which the word was being used rather than which word was chosen. A geek whose geeky friend laughingly calls them a nerd because they're excited about the way they took out a Legion outpost on the outskirts of New Vegas is probably not going to react differently because of the word choice. Someone who is trying to insult someone by calling them a geek or a nerd probably won't win any points by picking one other the other.

That being said, there are elements of social awkwardness to nerd that I personally don't see applying to geek, just as there are elements of fandom obsession in geek that aren't necessarily in nerd. But it's not like there is a brick wall between the two terms. A male nerd can be a Star Wars geek and not know how to talk to girls without promptly making an awkward ass of himself. A female gaming geek can be a total textbook nerd in an academic subject that interests her (RE: first picture posted in this article).


How does being a girl fit into all of this?

I'll reassure anyone who may feel like any mention of gender differences is an instant warning sign that the writer is about to go into an extreme anti-men rant about how the world would be much better without penises. Far from it. But I think it is interesting to look at how femininity fits into the geek world. 

She has nice boobs, but is that necessary?

 Let's take Kari Byron for example. When she was hired, it was not to be a host in front of the camera. She repeatedly showed up to Jamie's M5 Industries workshops with a desire to get hired by his special effects company. She worked behind the scenes until being put in front of the camera with any regularity, and has said that she found it uncomfortable and difficult to act naturally at first when getting more screen time. Yet she is repeatedly accused of being the token female. 

I feel like I've had challenges constantly while being on "Mythbusters," a lot of backlash like “That's the only reason you're on the show, you're a token girl”, which is absolutely not the case. I worked really hard to get on this show, And I do everything that everyone else on the show does. I laugh at those comments now and I kind of take it as a compliment, like, “Oh, you just said I was pretty. I'll take that.” Because I don't validate anything else that you've said.

 But she's still photographed in a provocatively sexy manner when promoting the show. Is this her fault? No. But it does add fuel to the fire when people think she's only there to be a pretty pair of boobs.


In the same interview, Kari and Mayim talked about the pretty girl nerd:

Bialik: I was on the floor at Comic -Con and there as a gorgeous, five-foot-nine, busty woman in a teeny, tiny Ewok outfit with tattoos and her belly out, and she wore a button that said “I love nerd girls.” And this is my bias, you know, but I thought, “You don't look anything like a nerd girl. You're stunning, you have an awesome stomach, you're wearing an Ewok bikini, you're busty, you're tall.” And I'm thinking, wow, how much the image has changed. She was at least ten years younger than me. And I was thinking, its like the 3rd wave of feminism... 3rd wave is like “I can look however I want, you still have no right to challenge me about my intellect. But it was just so funny because that would never have been my image of a geek...

Byron: I've noticed sort of a backlash against attractive girls that happen to be nerds or gamers, almost constantly challenging the fact that's they're nerds or geeks as if there's no way that's a possibility...

 Female attractiveness is often a source of social division. Traditional beauty adds social value (statistically more likely to get hired for better paying jobs, get services at discounts, etc.) and is many times used to categorize women into the physical haves and have-nots.

What I find interesting and strange is how the geek/nerd community has twisted this hierarchy around somewhat. Lots of geeks want to go to conventions to see the busty cosplaying Slave Leias, but also deny them a level of legitimacy as nerds because of their attractive appearance. On the other hand, a Catwoman whose got a little extra weight on her than the comic book ideal won't be as flocked-to by those snapping pictures, but is taken more seriously if she starts discussing the intricacies of Dungeons and Dragons.

On a personal note, I think that these kinds of hierarchies or fights over who is a 'real' geek do more harm than good. It's similar to a branch of the body acceptance movement that berates the slender body image popularized by the media, saying that "real women" are larger and curvier. Does that make the women who are naturally thin somehow not real? Are you less of a woman because of the size and shape of your body? Who gets to decide what is the "real" body that typifies womanhood, because isn't that the kind of behavior that you're objecting to in the first place?